power as he is able to purchase the animal for no other reason but to establish the animal's comfort.  Further, he has also put an end to the tales created by the men, and even gets the last word in at the "draggin' out" to which he forbids Janie to attend as it is "common."

Once again, Joe's power restricts Janie.  But, having experienced the convivial spirit of the men on the porch as they banter about the mule, Janie realizes that there is much to life that she desires.  While Joe is not a mean or cruel person, his chauvanistic motives quell the spirit of Janie.  Like the poor mule who has been exploited in both life and death, Janie's spirit, too, has been hindered and her person exploited as Joe keeps her in the role of dutiful wife.

The mule is symbolic of the relative social position of Black people. As Janie's grandmother says, Black women are the "mules" of the world. When Joe buys the mule for five dollars, Matt tells him that he "beatyuh tradin' dat time, Starks!" meaning that the mule, on the brink of death, was not worth the money. But Starks says that he "bought dat varmint tuh let 'im rest." Joe's gesture is a recognition of more than that the animal is suffering; his purchase of the mule is a symbolic assertion of the value of Black people in general. As Janie says, buying the mule "makes uh mighty big man outa you," and she compares Joe to Washington and Lincoln. But her comparison is ironic, too, since the mule, even though it is not working, is not free, but is Joe's property. In the same way, even though Joe honors Janey, she is, in the end, his wife, and he expects and demands obedience.

The rich symbolism that is given to the figure of the mule in this excellent novel clearly concerns both the position of black women in this world but also provides a comment on the character of Janie's first husband, Logan. Consider how her grandmother uses the figure of the mule to comment on the hardships of being a black woman in their world:

So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.

Janie's grandmother wishes that her granddaughter can enjoy a different reality, and escape being a "mule uh de world."

Secondly, in Chapter Four, we can see the mule as a symbol for Logan and the kind of man that he is. His plan of buying a second mule so that Janie can help him in the fields indicates the way that he is a mule-like figure himself, without inspiration or ambition and is slavishly closed in terms of his outlook on life and its possibilities. This of course is completely different from Joe Starks and his ambition and the way he is linked to the horizon.

Thus we can see the mule is a symbol of the position of black women, but it is also used as a symbol of Janie's first husband and his lack of ambition and inspiration.